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21 September 2012

As we move toward the Paris Motor Show, Audi AG has begun an onslaught of new products that will debut there. No less than the new R8 coupe, R8, R8 Spyder, R8 V10 plus, RS 5 Cabriolet, A3 Sportback and S3 will take their European or world bow in Paris next week. Photos of the latter two just surfaced in the last 48 hours. With so much new eye candy, our first inclination was to begin to imagine the possibilities. Around Fourtitude we have a great love for speculation of the rendered variety. Given so much new material, we’ve decided to begin a recurring feature on the site, and we’ve decided to dub it #fotoshopfriday.Round 1: Enter the next-generation Audi RS 3 Sportback.

Audi hasn’t yet officially confirmed a new RS 3, but its existence was expected even before German executives spoke rather freely about it as far back as the A3 Concept sedan that launched in Geneva in the spring of 2011. That concept car boasted Audi’s 2.5 TFSI 5-cylinder and there’s no reason to suspect a production RS 3 will be any different.

Truth be told, this is not the first RS 3 we’ve rendered. Following the launch of the RS 4 Avant, we applied the latest RS-car design language such as nose, wheels and more to the silhouette of the aforementioned A3 sedan concept. Above is the 4-door version we published several months ago in an effort to show American buyers what they can expect when that car drops. Our own intel suggests the RS 3 sedan is basically a done deal for the US. It’s meant to recapture the magic of the RS 4 and based on our renders we think Audi will have no problem doing that.

From a design standpoint, we stuck close to what was known for that earlier sedan render. The front fascia was lifted wholesale from the RS 4 Avant. In the case of the more recent Sportback renders, hastily created in the last 36 hours since photos of the car dropped, we decided to change the look just a bit. Former Audi design boss Stefan Sielaff suggested to the press that different body styles of cars will get different looks just as the RS 4 and RS 5 are now differentiated, so we’ve gone for the frowning look more similar to the RS 5 and literally pulled that fascia design from the limited production A1 quattro for an updated appearance around the base of the grille and sectioned front air inlets.

Other styling was left in keeping with the current RS 3 Sportback. This rendered car, like the current one, skips the box flares of the B8-based RS cars in favor of more subtle flared arches. We mirrored that here. As for wheels, we lifted the new 10-spoke RS-design wheel wholesale from the RS 4 and RS 5. The rim looks fantastic and we’re hoping it becomes the next generation ubiquitous rim for RS models.

So what do you think? If we hadn’t told you these were renders would we have you fooled? What did we do right? What did we do wrong? Also, any requests for our next round of renders?